03 October 2012

Onwards to the Busaco Ridge

Well it is off to Montreal tomorrow. Should be a great weekend, I am playing SAGA on Saturday with Nicolas of Nowhere to Lead Soldiers. He has been painting up an Anglo-Dane (well I think they are dwarves actually) 4 point warband, his painting and especially his shields are really great, have a look at his website. I am bringing my Skraelings and Viking war bands.

On Sunday, myself and Nicolas are taking on les frères Martin in a Peninsular War battle. I am sure Iannick will be posting an AAR on his blog Clash of Empires. I will try to snap a couple of photos as a taster.

Our last several games have been with Black Powder, but for this game we have decided to use Field of Battle from Piquet. This was a ruleset myself and Iannick used for our first encounter a couple of years ago. It is a fun game, but has a somewhat limited utility in asymmetric battles (Houguomont, La Haie Sainte etc).

I do not often get the Brits out, and they need some exercise, so we decided on Peninsular War scenario. I am aiming for Plancenoit and Quatre Bras, but a lot more work to do yet, hopefully by the bicentennial.

Sometime ago I bought David Brown's General de Brigade Scenario book for the Peninsular Wars. Excellent resource, and after a look through I decided to go with the initial stages of the Battle of Buscao. Reynier's Assault seemed just right, we have 2 new players not familiar with the ruleset, so we wanted around 6-10 units per player. There is also no cavalry in this scenario, and very limited artillery, so I am hoping it will work out well. I had to do some modifications but they were minimal. Essentially 4 French brigades are ordered to assault up hill in an attempt to take one of the British flanks. On the ridge is the III Anglo-Portuguese Division under Picton.

Here is our planned scenario modified for FoB (double clicking will make it readable)

Well here is my Anglo-Portuguese force marching towards the ridge. Lots of new Flagdude Standards.

I am supplying 2 of the French brigades and Iannick the other 2. They look all set do they not.